EVANSTON, Ill. – After one session at the Northwestern Dual Invitational, the Missouri State men’s swimming & diving team has more than held its own against some of the top teams in the region: No. 20 Iowa, (RV) Notre Dame and the host Wildcats. Highlighting the Bears’ top performances on Friday (Feb. 1) was a win in the 200 IM and a runner-up finish in the 1-meter diving competition.

Kalnins jumped right back in the pool with the 500 free and led the Bears with a fifth-place finish (4:36.56) behind a pair of NU and IU swimmers. For the second event in a row, the Bears topped Notre Dame’s fastest swimmer for an early lead over the Fighting Irish. Despite the exhibition status, January enrollee Miguel Davila churned out a 4:33.97 in the event to register the Bears’ third fastest time this season and the fourth fastest overall on Friday.

The Bears got a big boost in the next event as sophomore Paul Le claimed the victory in the 200 IM. Le, who was named Swimmer of the Meet at Northwestern’s 2011 TYR Invitational, swam a season-best time of 1:49.13 and moved into second place in the MAC with his performance. Other MSU scoring participants included Chris Carpenter (9th) and Daan Jansen (11th).

The tide turned toward Missouri State’s three opponents in the 50 free registering nine of the top 10 times in the event. The Bears’ lone finisher in the top 10 was Baryshok (20.95) in seventh. Notre Dame’s Frankie Dyer won the event by one hundredth with a time of 20.45.

Missouri State concluded the first day of swimming with a fourth-place finish in the 400 medley relay and once again defeated the Fighting Irish A-Relay. The Bears only trail Notre Dame by two points after the first session.

In diving action, sophomore sensation Garrett Nevels continued his string of impressive performance with a runner-up finish on the 1-meter springboard. The Lee’s Summit, Mo. native totaled 302.00 points to help close the gap in the team race with the 20th-ranked Hawkeyes and host Northwestern.

Saturday will be split up into two sessions, the first beginning at 10 a.m. The final session is set to start at 5 p.m.